Fire in our homes is something we must prevent and prepare for. They will not only burn away our valuable possessions but can take lives as well.

Here are 5 fire safety, preparation, and prevention tips that can preserve your belongings and most importantly, save your lives.

1. Make sure that all members of the household know the fire escape route in case of fire emergencies. If you still do not have one, plan an effective route with your family. It is even better to practice some drills to keep things sharp.

The best way to do that is to draw an overhead map of your house. Find out all the doors and windows of the house. Determine the fastest and safest ways to get out depending on location of fire. A fire on the kitchen will command a particular route while a fire from the living room will likely have a different one.

Draw out your fire safety evacuation plan and place it in visible places. Encourage your household members to study the plan. One more thing, always have a rendezvous point so you can account all the members after evacuation. The best example for this is the mailbox outside the house.

2. The second tip is not that very well-known but still very effective. Make it a habit to sleep with your bedroom door closed. The reason for this is to prevent the superheated gases and smoke from entering the bedroom in an event of fire while you are sleeping. This will give you extra time to collect yourself and escape.

3. Install a smoke detector in each room of the house. Smoke detectors can detect fires many times faster than humans can. However, make sure that you do maintenance at least once a month by testing it. Be wary of its batteries. Needless to say, having the most expensive and state-of-the-art smoke detector with dead batteries is rather stupid.

4. Never ever smoke in bed. While smoking is bad for your health to begin with, it is even worse when you are sleepy or ready to go to sleep at night. Cigarette smoking in bed easily tops the list of causes of fires in homes.

5. Matches and lighters can be deadly and they are definitely not toys that children should play with. If you have restless children in your homes, make sure that you tell them that matches and lighters are toys for adults only to play with and those things are not for them.

Keep flammable and igniting materials from children’s reach at all times. Lock them in drawers if needed.